Friday, March 16, 2012

7 Quick Takes [3.16.12] All About a Heatwave

1. Right now at one o'clock in the afternoon on this, the sixteenth of March, it is 72 degrees outside. At this rate it will probably be 80 by 5:00. And it's not a one-day event. It's been like this all week and is poised to stay warm into next week too. This is no heat wave. It's a freak of nature.

2. Minnesotans aren't sure what to do when it's this warm in March. Half of the population breaks out their shorts, tanks and flip flops immediately. And the other half, like me, completely overdresses for outdoor activities because I just can't believe it's that warm just yet. For months I've been covering the baby in 75 blankets and now you're telling me it's OK to bring her out in just a onesie and leggings with no blanket?

3. The problem with this kind of warmth this early is twofold. First, the outdoors isn't ready for the kind of play 80-degree weather demands. Everything is dry and dusty and still trying to recover from muddy, melty snow. Some of the soil is even still frozen! So when I send the kids out in their shorts and Crocs, they come back to me looking like they've just bathed in a soot pile. All I can see is the whites of their eyes.

And the second problem with this record heat is that we all know it's a trick. There is absolutely no way these temperatures can remain steady for the next two months until 70 sounds normal. We know it's going to dip back down below freezing at some point and when it does it's going to feel some kind of awful after all this. It's all relative. It's why 40 degrees in February sounds like a blizzard to someone living in Atlanta and why it sounds like the beach to someone living in Minnesota.

4. My skin rivals that of an albino.

5. Tonight we'll have our second bonfire of the year.

6. This kids ate lunch outside.

7. And then there's this.

Nothing to do with the weather. I just couldn't leave a Quick Takes without a picture of her.